Maria Moynihan interviewed Modern Wife curator Ciara Meehan for the Irish Country Living supplement of the Farmers Journal.

From beauty tips to the birth of feminism, the lives of Irish women in the ’60s is the subject of “Modern Wife, Modern Life” at the National Print Museum.

When Dr Ciara Meehan was looking at a copy of Woman’s Choice magazine from the 1960s, she came across a reader quiz called: Are you an ideal wife?

“Question one asks: ‘List in order of importance the following: home, husband, career and children,’” says Ciara.

“And, according to the answers, your priorities should be husband first, then children, then the home and, of course, career at the end.”

This quiz is just one of the items on display at Modern Wife, Modern Life, which runs at the National Print Museum of Ireland in Dublin from 1 July to 30 August. It is an exhibit curated by Ciara which aims to explore the lives of Irish women in the 1960s as seen through the pages of the magazines of that era.

Last Friday, Greystones Library played host to Dr Ciara Meehan from the University of Hertfordshire and curator of the Modern Wife, Modern Life exhibition at the National Print Museum for her road show on Everyday Life and 1960s Irishwomen.

The project makes another appearance in LeCool Dublin. This time, they’re highlighting my talk at the National Library of Ireland, Publishing Values? Women’s Magazines and Everyday Life in 1960s Ireland.

In the upcoming referendum, we are being asked to extend civil marriage to everyone, regardless of their sex, and to enshrine that in the constitution. What is still embedded in our constitution, and will continue to irk every Irish feminist/femenist is the article that states that a woman’s place in the home is to be protected, and the matriarch of the family should not be forced out of economic need to seek employment. Oh.

I’ve written a blog post for Fingal.ie explaining the purpose and aim of my Everyday Lives and 1960s Women road shows, and what I hope to achieve with the people’s archive I’m attempting to create. You can read the piece in full on the website here.